Walter Gretzky, Wayne and Mike Barnett met with Pat Quinn and George McPhee and John McCaw here in Vancouver. They were negotiating, and had agreed on a three year, 18-21 million dollar package. After a day of negotiating, they shook hands, agreed to it verbally, and decided to sign the deal the next morning.

Between the time the deal was agreed to, in the mid evening, and 1am, the Canucks started panicking because they'd heard a rumor that the NY Rangers were going to up their offer. So at 1am 1:30am, George McPhee calls Gretzky in his hotel room, and tells him he has to come and sign the deal right then and there. Gretzky asked if it could wait until morning, which McPhee told him, that it's now or never, and if he wasn't signed that night, the Canucks would pull the deal off the table. So the Great One told McPhee basically to "F" off, and said the deal's off. And within a couple of days Gretzky was a Ranger.

My earliest memories of the Canucks was from 1980 when I was 6 years old and my family just moved to BC. My uncle had season tickets but was usually away on business trips so me and my cousin used to get to go to all of the games. I remember feeling pretty big getting to take the bus from Tsawassen to the PNE and watching the games and then hanging outside the dressing rooms getting autographs and seeing all the players. On one occasion I had the good fortune to get hit by a puck (Curt Fraser). I was so excited to get the puck I never even felt any pain but then my knee started hurting and I began to cry (also because everyone was staring at me). One of the stadium security guys came down and took me to the first aid room to get looked at and after I got to go in the dressing room after the game and get an autographed stick from all the players (I still have the stick and the puck). The year we moved to Saskatchewan was the year the Canucks went to the Stanley Cup and I still can rember getting to stay up until 2and 3 in the morning watching them and I've been a lifelong fan since. I have a very vivid memory of Stan Smyl getting a breakaway pass after stepping out of the penalty box and going in to score on Murray Bannerman? to beat the Blackhawks in OT.

I used to travel from Victoria to Vancouver to watch the Nux at the Pacific Colisseum . A co-worker had transferred from Van to Vic and had season tickets which I gladly bought a third of, even tho' it meant riding a ferry and staying overnight most games.

I often went by myself (altho' the tickets were a pair of seats) and believe it or not many of my friends/co-workers weren't upto the trip on most game days. I often thought of donating tickets for games I couldn't get to or a ticket if going by myself.

One eventful day, I think it was a Leaf game, I was pulling into the parking lot as a big brothers commercial was on the radio and thought that would be an idea. Take a little brother to a game.

With this fresh in my mind, I was approached by a "street urchin" (baggy pants, a toque and a candle running down his nose) asking if I had any spare tickets. As this was a game I was attending alone, I gave him my extra ticket.

The national anthem had just finished when a guy in a suit sat down next to me.

You guessed it. My "little brother" sold that ticket to the suit for face value.

My earliest Canuck memories have to be from the 1982 Cup run. I was only 4 at the time. But the biggest memory I have was from my father swearing at the t.v. from when the Islanders were beating the Canucks.

I do remember just how excited the whole city was. In 12 years, the team never won a playoff series and all of a sudden, we were in the Stanley Cup FInals. It's too bad we ran into a brick wall in the Finals.

Media_Man wrote: I thought Jere Gillis was the bomb after that, and I had to wear #21 playing street hockey. Little did I know, looking back, how average a hockey player he really was.

*lol* I always either "#4, Mike Walton" or "#8, Rick Blight", at least until Gradin came to town.
biggest hockey-related memory from my youth was Dino Ciccarelli giving me a puck after a warm-up. That was in his rookie year, so it would have been 1980.

Superb thread. It's a great diversion. I've enjoyed reading everyone's posts. Mine intertwines with a few of them.

First memories are from about 1974 when I got a 'vintage' blue jersey to wear to my hockey practices as a six year-old up in Smithers. Vegas mentioned hockey cards. That was my big thing for a while. The original hockey cards, BTW, not the spendy upper deck type that surged in popularity in the 90s. The ones we bought were about a quarter and they came with that initally-yummy-quickly-followed-by-very-nasty flavoured 'gum'. In fact, the smell of that stuff immediately makes me think of hockey cards. But I digress. My Canuck memory was that I would trade just about anybody for a Vancouver player. Shrewd deals might have included Yvon Cournoyer for Mike Robitaille, maybe Tony Esposito for Andre Boudrias. Who could forget that great 4-player deal of Brad Park and Gilbert Perreault for Bob Dailey and Dennis Ververgaert? BTW, Canucks cards never went in the spokes of my bike to make that cool noise. Use Leafs cards for that.

My first game memory has to be hearing Jim Robson on the radio.. "I'd like to say hello to all the hospital patients and shut-ins..".. Anytime I hear Jim speak now, I think about hearing the game on in the house when I was little. As for TV - this was the era of hockey on CBC ONLY and 20 years before the double-header. You might see the Canucks a couple times and only when they were in the East.

Later memories: wondering why management thought a marketing firm in San Diego would know anything about designing a hockey uniform (and seeing the garish outcome); the great towel-power run in 82' when King Richard stole the show and my Dad yelling "Harold! Noooooo! Just before the Isles won it all in OT in the finals"; watching Pavel Bure score on a breakaway at GM Place against the Jets; the incredible emotional ride of the 94' playoffs and the horrible empty feeling when they came oh so close, but lost in game seven.

But most of all, I think about the fact that I've never once stopped being a Canucks fan. I used to like the 'Nucks and the Pens (the original logo was very cool to a 6 year-old), then I liked the 'Nucks plus the Bruins a little bit (Bourque-fan), but for about 15 years now I've liked the Canucks and only the Canucks. There is no other team for me.

Back in about 76 or 77, my Dad and I got to see two games at the Coliseum over Christmas. We watched the Canucks get just pounded by the Flyers and Bruins. Yuck.

It is because of memories like the above that I find it interesting how much people love the old jersey. I like them too, but they do remind me of an era of futility that perhaps most posters here did not experience.

When I hear people say things like "they all suck" or "they just aren't very good", I keep thinking - If this is bad, what was it when they were never above .500???

My first Canucks game was in 1976 angainst St Louis. My dad took me to the Coliseum, we sat in the blue seats as they were 8 dollars. My dad told me one day we would splurge and get the 10 dollar red seats.
My memory of the game was that the Canucks got beat. Red Berenson and Gary Unger looked pretty good that night. One of the Canuck goals I remember was deflected into the net by Derek Sanderson's head (no helmet).
My favourite Canuck was Rick Blight, and I wore number 8 when I played minor hockey.
I also remember standing along the glass during the pre game warmup and Chris Oddliefson signed an autograph for me.

"Last season, we couldn’t win at home and we were losing on the road. My failure as a coach was that I couldn’t think of any place else to play."
-- Harry Neale - 1980

Media_Man wrote:Possibly, and possibly not.....But I still would have rather of had Gretzky here than Messier. Gretzky has always had a soft spot for Vancouver, and you have to admit the greatone would have looked great with Bure and Mogilny.

Pretty easy to say in hindsight.

Also I've heard some stories about him ripping Vancouver in private after somethings that happened here.

Naslund did hate Keenan, I remember reading an interview he did back in his home country saying that, but he loved Mess.

"I think my biggest influence has been Messier."Watching him prepare for games and how seriously he still took everything at his age. A lot of the qualities that he had helped me get better."- Markus Naslund